Governing the geocoded world: Environmentality and the politics of location platforms

Abstract

As location and the nearby environment become increasingly prominent for our communications, filtering flows of information and shaping our networks, geolocation technology and emergent forms of usage to govern information and visualize populations raise important questions as to how locative media could be used as tools of governmentality. Using Google's location platform Places as a primary example, this article will argue that location platforms are underpinned by a geodemographical spatial ordering according to which subjects are located for the purpose of economic government. Particular attention is paid to the political economy of location platforms and the role of their underlying algorithms and databases in rendering social space subject to novel forms of commodification. Drawing on Foucault's governmentality analytic framework, the article concludes by delineating a critical framework to assess the mentalities and strategies of government that the generalized geocoding of information is giving rise to.

Place-Based Knowledge in the Twenty-First Century

“…Barreneche (2012) highlights the potential issues with using such tools (e.g. Google Places) and how these tools may be subject to specific interpretations of daily space around us.…”

“…Furthermore, as digital and mobile technologies are adopted into society and their uses expand into other aspects of daily life, one has to also be cognizant of the power of such technologies that incorporate their own cultural, political, and economic biases (Barreneche 2012;Castells 2000;Deuze 2007). Barreneche (2012) highlights the potential issues with using such tools (e.g.…”

Mobile media and ecologies of location

“…A second interviewee stated that they only tag Facebook with location some of the time, while noting earlier in the interview that all their Foursquare check-ins were pushed to Facebook. While a third offered the following reflection on their Google accounts: This particular participant appears oblivious to the various forms of geodemographic profiling and targeted marketing that Google employs using end user data (Barreneche, 2012a), and of the motility of social media and search data as it moves between a company like Google and various third parties (Coté, 2014).…”

I PLAY AT WORK—ten principles for transforming work processes through gamification

“…For example, each user, in consultation with colleagues and managers, could set concrete goals and concrete standards of success or failure (Brox et al, 2011; Barthel, 2013). Such an approach may allow for various work processes to be tailored to a specific audience (Baranowski et al, 2012; Ahola et al, 2013; Barthel, 2013) while allowing for personalization based on individual preferences (Barreneche, 2012). …”